UPDATE x 3: According to a report from The New York Post, WWE SmackDown! Live will go from two-to-three hours when it moves to the FOX network in October of 2019.
Also, following the news that WWE SmackDown! Live would be heading to FOX in October of 2019, WWE’s stock continues to grow. The WWE stock on Monday afternoon was trading at $53.89 – another all-time high.
UPDATE x 2: According to a report from Uproxx.com, there is talk that WWE SmackDown! Live could be going back to airing on Friday nights with the new WWE-FOX deal that was announced today. According to the site, the deal is the end result of a major shakeup in WWE broadcast partners after NBC Universal decided to “focus more on RAW”. WWE Monday Night RAW has aired on USA Network since 2005 and will continue to do so.
FOX will begin airing WWE SmackDown! Live starting in October of 2019. According to this article from The Wrap, FOX will be moving WWE SmackDown! Live back to Friday nights.
WWE and FOX Sports both declined comment on this story when reached by TheWrap and other media outlets.
Comcast, which owns NBCU and the USA Network, will continue to air Monday Night RAW.
UPDATE: According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com as well as the Hollywood Reporter, the WWE-FOX deal for SmackDown! Live to air on the network is a five-year, one billion dollar deal.
The new deal, which is nearing completion, is expected to begin in October 2019, and will mark a three-fold increase over what NBCUniversal is currently paying.
We’ll have breaking updates on this story throughout the afternoon.
Five years ONE BILLION reported for WWE-Fox.
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) May 21, 2018
ORIGINAL: Darren Rovell of ESPN is reporting that the WWE has agreed to make Fox the new home of SmackDown Live in October 2019 with what was described as a “massive” offer.
According to Matthew Beloni, Editorial Director of The Hollywood Reporter, Raw would be remaining on the USA Network and getting as much as three times its current rate from the cable network, but NBC intends to let SmackDown Live go. Thus, WWE will have to find a new home for SmackDown Live.
